A World Dyed Crimson
by GoodbyeCrimson
Summary: The life of a magical girl is short, lonely, and wrought with hardships, but Kyoko is determined to prevent Sayaka's infectious depression from spreading. Oneshot. KyokoxSayaka.


_A World Dyed Crimson_

Her sword flung out of her hand with the whip of the witch's tentacle like appendage. It flew far out of her grasp, some twenty feet behind her. Despite the numerous blades she always had encircling her, the witch had managed to completely disarm her in a matter of moments.

"Think you won?" She smirked, bawling her hand into a tight fist. With the viciousness of a wild beast she pounced on her unsuspecting enemy, grabbing what she assumed to be its head with one hand and slamming her opposite fist down into it repetitively. She threw her entire weight into each blow, her bones cracking against the shield-like skin of the monstrous witch. Again. Again. Again. She brought her bloodied fist down and pounded on the creature until both it and her right hand were reduced to motionless pools of blood and bone.

"Ah…" She looked at her white gloved hand, soiled by her blood and a few protruding fragments of bone. _I wonder if this is what he felt… _She wriggled her unfeeling, useless hand as she waited for her broken vessel to heal itself. _I've never really had any talents or any direction… Why couldn't I have been in his place…? If only… _If only their roles were reversed, she wouldn't have needed to make that wicked wish. Things wouldn't have ended like this… But she couldn't bring herself to complete that thought.

She grabbed her hand and jerked it back into place, returning to her school uniform and walking down the dark alleyway. Somewhere in the back of her mind she thought of Madoka, her wide rose-colored eyes brimming with tears at the sight of her best friend's brutality. "Tch. Doesn't matter." She lied to herself, continuing down the shadowy path with her cold blue eyes focused in front of her.

"Hey." A burst of light jumped in front of her. Kyoko descending from a nearby rooftop with her long red hair flying around her like a bright flame. Her tone was casual, but her sharp crimson eyes told a different story. She was wearing a baggy sea-foam colored sweatshirt and a pair of crudely cut jean-shorts with a box of strawberry pocky in her free hand.

Sayaka tensed when her rival appeared, but seeing that her powers were not invoked assumed she wasn't looking for a fight.

"That was a witch this time. Didja get a grief seed?"

"Why, you want it?" Sayaka reached into her pocket and tossed the black gem to Kyoko.

"No, I don't want it." Kyoko threw it back in slight annoyance. "I hunt witches on my own. I get my _own_ grief seeds. That's yours, you use it."

The grief seed hit Sayaka in the chest and fell to the ground with a quiet _clink_. She was too mentally exhausted to catch it, and her reflexes had slowed since she decided avoiding blows was no longer an issue. She fixed her eyes on Kyoko, ignoring the darkly shimmering crystal that lay among the muck of the grimy alleyway.

"You act like you don't want it, but all you guys care about is grief seeds. You don't care who dies… you don't care about anything but your goddamned self. Fine, don't take it. It makes no difference to me." Sayaka bent down and retrieved the grief seed, pocketing it once more and pushing past an irritated Kyoko.

_Her eyes look so… __**hollow**__. _Kyoko thought as the blue-haired girl moved past her. The light had long gone from Sayaka Miki's eyes, replaced with a solemn sense of purpose. Deep purple rings surrounded the frozen oceans of her eyes, caused by anguish ridden sleepless nights. _She looks like a fucking corpse… Why does she keep doing this to herself… _She chomped down on her lower lip, her pointed incisor cutting down into her skin.

"Why do you have to be such a stubborn bitch?" Kyoko exploded, whipping her empty candy box at the back of Sayaka's head. The box hit her but she didn't seem to care about whatever Kyoko threw at her anymore. Whether it was words or bullets, there was nothing the hot-tempered girl could use to penetrate her icy exterior.

"Why? What about you, Kyoko? You don't think about the people you could have saved… you don't think about the people that die because all you care about is yourself! You never think about the pain other people feel…" Sayaka shouted with her back still turned to Kyoko.

She gripped her fist, thinking back to the boy who she had given everything for. Thinking back to his pain. Thinking back to his salvation (_her damnation)_.

"You say that you just live your life for yourself… but are you really happy that way, Kyoko?" Sayaka went on, her tone as bitter and dejected as her appearance. "What's the point of living for yourself if you're never happy? How can you be happy without a purpose?" She spun around, bringing her foot down on the empty pocky box and stomping on it. "Face it, Kyoko. **You're just as dead as I am**."

"Shut the fuck up, Sayaka. You don't know what the hell you're saying." Kyoko growled back.

"There's no point in fighting." Sayaka turned her back on Kyoko once more. "You wouldn't want to waste your magic on me, and I don't have a reason to fight you."

"Damn it…" Kyoko cursed to herself.

Kyubey came strolling down towards her, saying in his usual eerily sweet voice, "Did you think you could help her?"

"No." Kyoko shook her head in exasperation, "I mean… I dunno. I don't get what's up with her… I guess it just sorta annoys me. I don't get her at all…"

"I don't understand why you worry about it to such an extent. You fought to kill her when you first met. Does the fact that you don't understand her make the situation any different?" Kyubey asked.

"Oh, shut up!" Kyoko rammed her foot into the small creature's face, punting him into the wall with one swift blow. With that she stormed out of the street, wandering back to the abandoned church of her childhood. Among the rumble and debris she could reflect on what happened, or at least bring enough stolen food to eat herself into serenity.

_I'm alive. _She thought, sitting down at the top of the tall stairs with an apple in her hands. The moonlight shone through the stained-glass windows, which dyed each pale ray a new, brilliantly warm color. _I have to be alive…_The thought brought on a new, terrifying idea. _What does it mean to be alive? To help people? To feel someone else's pain? To have someone know my pain? What a load of shit. My body is just a cage for magic powers… I fight just to survive…I don't have anyone I care about, and I sure as hell know no one gives a crap about me… I don't have a future, and I don't want to remember my past…But I must be alive, right? I eat, and I get hungry. I feel pain and happiness…and I get tired and bored… So I must be alive. Right?_

* * *

><p>"Why are you watching me again?" Sayaka asked, pulling her sword up with two hands. It was few days after their last meeting and the two magical girls were just as disagreeable as they had been during their prior encounter.<p>

"I dunno. I just kinda wandered here." Kyoko shrugged, hands in her pockets. "Last time you said I didn't have a reason to fight you, Sayaka, but-"

Sayaka cut her off, "I said _I_ didn't have a reason to fight you. I said_ you_ wouldn't want to waste your magic on me." She corrected.

"Yeah, whatever. That's not the point." Kyoko scratched her head, fingers running through her long burgundy hair in frustration. "I just wanted to say that I_ do_ gotta reason to fight you. I don't mind wasting my magic on you, so you better prepare yourself." Kyoko activated her powers, her red outfit blazing in the twilight, her spear gripped tightly in her hands.

"You're going to fight me?" Sayaka stated the obvious in confusion, readying her own sword. Battling a witch's familiar had left her bloodied enough; although she wasn't going to turn down Kyoko's offer, she wasn't very enthusiastic about the idea.

She felt the familiar rush again, weapons swirling and crashing as she intertwined with Kyoko. They battled each other in an odd cadence as though there was an orchestra bombing somewhere nearby by. For every hit Kyoko delivered, Sayaka lunged in for another. Dancing, twisting, turning, the bright sky lighting them on fire and casting their shadows long across the pavement.

"You're fighting like you want to kill me." Kyoko chuckled. "But where's that crazy laugh you get when you fight witches and familiars? Where's the feeling?"

Ignoring her meaningless babble Sayaka asked, "Why do you want to fight me?"

"When I first met you, I hated you." Kyoko explained.

"And now?"

"I _really_ hate you."

Kyoko brought the back of her spear around and slammed it across Sayaka's face; her fragile body was thrown back against the ground with a thud. The dance was over, and it was time for the finale.

Kyoko was on Sayaka in moments, holding her spear above her heart as she sat on her stomach. "I'm gonna kill you, Sayaka." She spit out an empty threat.

"I don't care." Sayaka accepted, closing her eyelids like a tired woman welcoming a long awaited sleep. "I'll keep protecting everyone until I die. I'll keep fighting…. Once I'm dead, I won't have to fight anymore… so I'll be happy."

"That's bullshit." Kyoko hissed.

"I can't sit by while other people suffer… so I'll keep fighting. I made this choice… now I'll follow it to the end." Sayaka spoke, resided to her fate.

Kyoko looked down at her with a complex mixture of emotions she couldn't understand. Pity, disgust, loathing, and kinship all mixed together in an emotional poison that could've killed her rapidly-beating heart.

"You said I was just as dead as you are… Do you think helping other people makes you alive, then?" Kyoko asked, her voice almost a whisper.

"What? Why do you care what I think?" Sayaka opened her eyes again, realizing the spear that had loomed over her heart had been tossed to the side.

"I didn't come here to kill you… but I guess I thought that… maybe if I fought you, you'd go back to the way you were when we first met. I guess it sounds kinda stupid…"

"Yeah, it does." Sayaka agreed.

"Oh, shut the hell up..." Kyoko grumbled, her cheeks reddening. "Just get that look in your eyes again! Get angry, get self righteous! Get _something_-just don't sit there like a corpse! Your heart still beats, doesn't it? You still feel something, don't you?" She gripped the fabric of Sayaka's top, shaking her violently with each sentence.

"Kyoko…"

"I don't give a damn about_ you_… but I can't stand the fact that you're making _me_ unhappy…! So stop it already! You don't have to do this! Helping strangers won't help you, and it won't help the people who care about you…"

_Care about me? What is she saying… like she knows…_Sayaka thought.

"You said I never try to understand how others feel… but I tried to understand you, and I _can't… _But I thought… Maybe if you didn't give yourself to everyone else… and if I didn't only care about myself… maybe we could reach some middle ground."

Something warm and wet dripped on Sayaka's face, and as she brought a bloody, gloved hand to her cheek, she realized Kyoko was crying.

"It sucks being alone, Sayaka. So you rely on me, and I'll rely on you… and everything will even out…"

"It's not that easy…" Sayaka looked away.

"Nothing really is… But if I want something, I take it. Come on, Sayaka, the night is young, and so are we. Let's have some fun." Kyoko stood up and offered the blue-haired knight a hand, drying her eyes as she did so.

"I don't like fun." Sayaka argued, but took her hand away.

"I'll make you like it." Kyoko grinned, wrapping her arm around Sayaka's waist and pulling her close. "Kiss me, Sayaka."

"What?" Sayaka blinked, fidgeting in Kyoko's embrace.

"If I want something I take it, and what I want is _you_, Sayaka. Kiss me."

Sayaka remained silent, fumbling for the right words to reply. Kyoko grew impatient and moved in on her own before the other magical girl could summon a response. She pressed her lips to Sayaka's, stealing a kiss from her in the orangey light of sundown. The surprised girl submissively allowed the redhead to slip her tongue into her mouth, but soon found herself returning the passionate gesture. She reached her hands up and ran them through Kyoko's long hair, grabbing a handful of it as she deeped their lip-lock. Against the brilliant red of Kyoko, Sayaka felt as through her blood stained clothes and the sins and regrets that went with them could be paled a forgotten. The only crimson she wanted so see was that of Kyoko's beautiful form, filling her eyes and her mouth, completing her broken and painful existence.

"There…" Kyoko panted as they parted, her cheeks as red as the rest of her outfit. "You had to feel _something_ just then, didn't you? Didn't that make your heart beat just a bit faster?"

"Y-yeah…" Sayaka blushed.

"See… you're alive after all." Kyoko grinned.

Sayaka raised an eyebrow. "Are you talking to me, or yourself?"

"I don't know." Kyoko laughed.

"You know, Kyoko…" Sayaka said, standing in the evening light with her crimson-haired friend. "You're right. It does suck being alone."

* * *

><p>AN: Blah, cheesy, I know. I admit, didn't really know where I was going with this. I just wanted to write something KyokoxSayaka and started typing with no clue what I was going to have the plot be. Came out a little more angsty and little less shojo-ai-ish than I would have liked… but oh well. Please review and tell me what you think, I'd really like to write more KyokoxSayaka in the future. 3


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